The Indie Book Awards are chosen by independent booksellers to reward and promote excellence in Australian writing. This year the awards go to
Fiction
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos (Dominic Smith, A&U)
Nonfiction
Everywhere I Look (Helen Garner, Text)
Debut fiction
The Dry (Jane Harper, Macmillan)
Young adult
Words in Deep Blue (Cath Crowley, Pan)
Children’s
Circle (Jeannie Baker, Walker Books)
The shortlisted titles are here
Fiction
Non Fiction
Fiction Debut
If you’re looking for more books to read, here is a very comprehensive list form Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) which has announced its longlist 2017.
On International Women’s Day, sixteen brilliant books were selected to make up this year’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist.
The longlisted books are as follows:
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
Little Deaths by Emma Flint
The Mare by Mary Gaitskill
The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride
Midwinter by Fiona Melrose
The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Barkskins by Annie Proulx
First Love by Gwendoline Riley
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
CBCA has announced the shortlist for the Readings Children’s Book Prize for 2017.
The shortlisted titles are:
Summary
‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird‘. Atticus finch gives this advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this classic novel – a black man charged with attacking a white girl. Through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Lee explores the issues of race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s with compassion and humour. She also creates one of the great heroes of literature in their father, whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town steeped in prejudice and hypocrisy.
Comments
While this story seemed to lack the ‘punch’ of a modern story, there were quite a lot of pros for this book. We enjoyed the overall simplicity of the writing, the simple setting and the quiet strength of the main characters. We’d all wished we had a father like Atticus. We can also see the impact this book would have had when it was first released and understand completely why it is studied in schools. While we have come a long way, the subject matter is still very much relevant today.
For some of our readers, it did lack the ‘pace’ of today’s stories. Overall though, we rated this book a commendable 7! This is definitely a book that everyone should read it at least once.
Rating – 7/10
Read by – Cultcha Club